The present invention relates to the structure of a telephone set and, more particularly, to the structure of a radiotelephone which is installed in a vehicle cabin or like confinement.
A telephone for use in a vehicle is usually made up of a handset unit and a base unit which is physically separate from the handset unit. The base unit is adapted to support the handset unit and is provided with a volume control knob, a power switch, and other switches on one of the opposite side faces thereof. A loudspeaker is on the other side face of the base unit. This kind of telephone for a vehicle is generally positioned at the left of the driver's seat if the driver's seat is monted at the right-hand side of the vehicle and at the right of the driver's seat if it is mounted at the left-hand side, so that only one of the opposite side faces of the base unit opposes a person who is seated in the driver's seat. Hence, arranging the manually controlled section with the volume control knob and power switch, for example, on the right face of the base unit is desirable from easy access standpoint for a vehicle of one type having a driver's seat at the right. However, this arrangement is undesirable for a vehicle of the other type having a driver's seat at the left, while arranging them on the left face of the base unit is desirable for the latter type of vehicle but is undesirable for the former type of vehicle.
Meanwhile, a current trend in the art of vehicle-mounted telephones, which has evolved from the decrease in equipment size, is toward their applications in both the inside and the outside of a vehicle cabin. However, a telephone provided with a structure which matches such a trend has not yet been realized.